On December 22nd, 2007 at Sportfight 21, Braveheart Gym's Mike Pierce captured the Sportfight Welterweight Championship by repeatedly taking Team Quest's Ed Nuno down to the ground and imposing his will there for the duration of their five round bout to win by Unanimous Decision.

Pierce had earned his title shot after KO'ing Team Quest's Mike Dolce in a record-breaking 5 seconds at Sporfight 20 last October. Then in April of this year at Sportfight 22, Team Quest's Nathan Coy, after another of his string of impressive victories at the Rose Garden, was being interviewed by HDNet Fights Ron Kruck and called out Pierce in front of viewers from around the nation. Pierce, sitting near ringside, quickly entered the ring and then Sportfight Promoter Matt Lindland did the same, just as quickly interjecting himself between Coy the Challenger and Pierce the Champion.

Thus set the stage for this Friday night's June 20th Sportfight 23: "Heated Rivals" at Portland's Rose Garden Arena which will see Mike Pierce and Nathan Coy mix it up in the 5 round Main Event for the Sportfight Welterweight Title.

NW Fightscene spoke with Mike Pierce inside Braveheart Gym last Friday and this is what the had to say about the upcoming bout...

NW Fightscene: Got your fight in a week against Nathan Coy. How do you feel?
Mike Pierce: I'm ready. I've been ready for a long time. It's been almost five months since my last fight and I was supposed to have a couple in between there but they kind of fell through for one reason or another so I've been ready for a long time. My conditioning's there. The rest of my fight game has come together really well so come next week I'm going to be ready.

NWFS: Nathan Coy... Do you guys have any bad blood going on there or is it more for show?
MP: I think more of its for hype. Its the old Braveheart / Team Quest rivalry thing going, and yeah Nate and me used to go to rival wrestling clubs. He went to USA of Oregon and I was at Peninsula Wrestling Club. But we were on the same national team together and there's the camaraderie there because we're representing the state of Oregon back at the national tournament. So, I mean we've never had any ill will towards each other. We've always been buddies but you know once you get in there it's all business and outside of that we can be friends. So that's just the nature of the game.

NWFS: What are you going to look for from Nathan?
MP: I kind of think Nathan's going to probably wanna try and take me down and do his ground and pound thing, thinking he can use his wrestling on me. But I think Nathan knows that it's going to be really hard to do that. I mean he knows that we're both at that level, we're both really good wrestlers. And so I'm going to be interested to see what he tries to do, where he tries to take this fight. But like I said, I'm ready to take it wherever it goes. I mean I'm been doing this a little bit longer than him and you know, sometimes that doesn't mean much, but I think I'm going to have the upper hand on this one wherever it goes. Whether its on the ground or on the feet, I think I'm going to come out with the win.

NWFS: And this is your first title defense...
MP: Yeah. That's the other thing. I don't really look at it like a title defense. It's just another opportunity to win the championship again. You get in that thought process of it's a defense. I don't know. I just don't want that getting to me. I don't want to think that I'm defending something. Its just I'm going to keep driving to be the best and if I got to beat Nate to prove it again that's great. That's what I got to do.

NWFS: All right. Good luck on Friday.
MP: Thank you.

Sportfight XXIII: Heated Rivals
Friday, June 20, 2008  - 7:00 PM 
Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon

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